Charlottesville removes Confederate statues
Cheers broke out Saturday, after a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee was lifted from its base - and removed entirely - in Charlottesville, Virginia.
This comes nearly four years after white supremacist protests - over plans to remove it - led to clashes in which a woman was killed after she was run down by a car driven by a self-described neo-Nazi.
On Saturday - Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker spoke to a crowd gathered to watch the statue depart:
"As this community and our country attempts to reconcile with this hypothesis of white supremacy, I hope that we can move to an authentic healing by embracing truth.”
University of Virginia Professor Larycia Hawkins said she was excited to witness this (quote) ‘historical correction.’
“This is a good day. It’s not erasing history. It's, it's removing monuments that tell the wrong narrative about history.”
A statue of Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was also removed Saturday in another city park.
Such statues - honoring leaders of the pro-slavery Confederate side in the American Civil War - have become a focus of protests against racism in recent years.
In April, Virginia's highest court ruled the city could remove both statues, overturning a state Circuit Court decision that had upheld a citizen lawsuit.
